Carrying assembly

ABSTRACT

The invention is an assembly for carrying a small item, such as a cell telephone, on one&#39;s person. The assembly includes a male and female fixture, one which is affixed to the small item or its carrying case and the other of which is attached to a convenient site, such as a person&#39;s belt, other article of clothing or the dashboard of an automobile. The male fixture has a stem portion with a smaller diameter than a slot provided in the female fixture. A button, mounted at the distal end of the stem, has a diameter larger than the width of the slot. When the stem is positioned at the bottom of the slot of the female fixture, a spring biased latch mechanism is provided to secure the male fixture within the slot. If the latch is depressed as by the pressure of a person&#39;s finger on the latch mechanism, the latch is released, and the male member can be withdrawn from the slot and the female member.

HISTORY OF THE APPLICATION

This application is based upon and claims priority from ProvisionalPatent Application Ser. No. 60/642,661 filed on Jan. 10, 2005.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to an assembly for carrying small items, such ascell telephones, pagers and the like on one's person. More particularly,the invention relates to an assembly that includes a male and a femalefixture, one of which is attached in persons belt and the other of whichis attached to a small personal item or its protective case. Theinvention provides a means by which the male and female fixtures caneasily be engaged or disengaged from each other, rotated relative toeach other, and held, if desired, in a given position of rotation.

A number of assemblies for carrying small personal devices are disclosedin the prior art which utilize male and female fixtures that can bereleasably engaged with each other. Conventionally, one of the fixturesis attached to a person's item of clothing, as a belt and the otherfixture is secured to a small personal item or its carrying case. By wayof example, reference is made to U.S. Pat. No. 4,605,335 in which a malefixture in the form of the shaped button is received in a U shapedopening in the female fixture. The male fixture is attached to thepersonal item and the female fixtures is attached to a person's belt. Inthis assembly, the button is inserted into an opening in the femalefixture, much like a key is inserted into a lock. The male fixture andits button are then rotated into a locked position to secure the malefixture within the female fixture. The procedure is reversed to separatethe fixtures.

Other types of carrying assemblies utilize similar arrangements in whichthe female fixture includes a generally U-shaped slot with the open endextending upwardly. This permits the stem of the male fixture, attachedat its distal end to a button of larger diameter, to be inserted intothe slotted opening in the female fixture. One such arrangement isdisclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,878,589. The design of this apparatusrequires that the male fixture be correctly oriented with respect to thefemale fixture when engaging or in disengaging one from the other.

An improved design is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,054,170 which makesit easier to engage the male fixture from the female fixture. Here themale fixture can be inserted in the female fixture from any position.But, to avoid accidental separation of one from the other, provision ismade to secure the male fixture within the female fixture unless anduntil they rotated into a predetermined position relative to each other.

Additionally, many different carrying assemblies have been proposed inwhich a first fixture is attached to one's person, as by a belt orstrap, and a second fixture, which carries the device or its protectivecase, can be inserted and held within the first fixture. Theseassemblies generally require the male and female fixtures to be orientedrelative to each other both to enable the fixtures to be engaged with ordisengaged from each other. It may prove difficult to align the fixturesas may be necessary to permit the fixtures to be engaged or disengagedfrom one another. It may prove particularly difficult when, as is acommon practice, the carrying assembly is secured at near to a person'sa waist where the assembly is partially obscured from view.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide an assembly inwhich a personal item, or it's carrying case, may be held in a fixturewhen the personal item is not in use.

Another object of the invention is to provide an assembly in which apersonal item, or it's carrying case, can be safely and securelysupported.

Another object of the invention is to provide a carrying assemblycomprising male and female fixtures which may be engaged or disengagedfrom each other with a minimum inconvenience.

Another object of the invention is to provide a carrying assemblycomprising male and female fixtures which may be engaged or disengagedfrom each other without requiring the fixtures to be in a particularalignment relative to each.

These of other objects are achieved by providing a novel arrangement andconfiguration of male and female fixtures that can be secured in andreleased from one another. The male fixture of the invention has a stemportion and a button mounted at the distal end of the stem. The stem isof a smaller diameter than the width of the slot formed by the U-shapedopening and the button is of a larger diameter than the width of theslot. When the stem is positioned at the bottom the slot of femalefixture, a spring biased latch mechanism is provided to secure the malefixture within the slot. The latch mechanism may be depressed against aspring bias to release the male member so that it can be removed fromthe slot. Preferably, a flange is located at the free end of the latchmechanism that provides a convenient finger hold to depress the latchmechanism.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A preferred configuration of the an assembly of the invention is shownin the drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a view in side elevation of the device of this inventionillustrating a male and female fixture seated in mating relationship oneto the other.

FIG. 2 is a view in side elevation of the female fixture of theinvention.

FIG. 3 is a front view of the female fixture.

FIG. 4 is a view in side elevation of the male fixture.

FIG. 5 is a view in plan showing the exposed surface of a button mountedon the distal end of the male fixture of FIG. 4.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The same reference numerals are used throughout to identify the sameelements as illustrated in the several drawings.

FIG. 1 is a representation of the device of this invention 1 as attachedto an object 3, such as a cell telephone. The essential elements of thedevice 1 are the male fixture 5 and the female fixture 7. An open endedloop 9 is provided on the female fixture 7 to accommodate a belt 11 ashere shown in cross section. The loop 9 is formed with a finger hold 13which can be used to separate the free ends of the loop 9 to make iteasy to allow the belt 11 to be inserted and held within the loop 9.

The female fixture 7 is attached to a support plate 15. An outwardlyfacing (away from a wearer's body) faceplate 17 is mounted on thesupport plate 15. As best can be seen in FIG. 3, the faceplate 17 has acentrally located U-shaped slot 19 as defined by the side walls 21-21.An upwardly and outwardly configured tongue 25 made from a resilientmaterial is positioned within the female fixture 7. The entire assemblyof the female fixture 7, including the belt loop 9, the support plate15, the faceplate 17 and the tongue 25 is held together by rivetfasteners 23-23.

In the above description of the female fixture 7 the tongue 25 issecured at its lower end on the support plate 15. A latch 27 is locatedon a lower portion of the tongue 25. A detent 28 projects from thesurface of the tongue 25 at a point just below the latch 27.

Details of the male fixture 5 are shown in FIG. 4 and FIG. 5. Abaseplate 29 is affixed on its one side to an object to be carried andthe stem 31 protrudes from its other side of the baseplate 29 normal tothe plane of the baseplate 29. The stem 31 carries a button 33 at itsdistal end. The stem 31 is of slightly lesser width than that of theslot 19 and the button 33 is of greater width than the at least thelower portion of the slot 19. This permits the stem 31 and the button 33to be moved in a reciprocating path within the slot 19 but, onceinserted into the slot 19, the diameter of the button 33, prevents thestem 31 from being axially pulled out of the slot 19.

In use, the carrying device 1 utilizes a male fixture 5 as attached to asmall article 3 to be carried. A female fixture 7 is provided with means9 to support the female fixture 7 on the garment of a wearer, as by abelt 11. When the article is to be secured in the assembly 1, the malefixture 5 is inserted in the open and the slot 19. The stem 31 of themale fixture 5 is moved towards the bottom of the slot 19 until thebackside of the button 33 slides over the latch 29. The resilient tongue25 is biased to push the button 33 flush against the backside of thefaceplate 17. After the button 33 slides over the latch 28, the bias ofthe tongue 25 seats the button under the latch 29 to prevent the button33 from being withdrawn moving upwardly in the slot 19. By these means,a male fixture 5 is secured within the slot 19 unless and until thefinger hold or flange 25 is depressed to move the tongue 25 and thelatch 27 out of contact with the button 33 and allow the button 33 toslide past the latch 27, to disengage the male fixture 5 from the femalefixture 7.

When the button 33 is seated within the slot 21, the male fixture 5 canbe rotated about the axis of the stem 31. As the male fixture 5 isrotated, the detent 28 will seat sequentially in the several grooves35-35. This permits the male fixture 5 to be indexed into variousdesired positions where it is held, relative to the female fixture 7, bythe detent 28, a groove 35 and spring bias of the tongue 25. The grooves35-35 are relatively shallow so that when a sufficient turning moment isapplied to the male member 5, the detent 28 may be unseated from anygiven groove 35.

By the foregoing described means, the male fixture 5 and the femalefixture 7 may be engaged or disengaged from each other without regard totheir orientation one to the other and, when they are engaged, the malefixture 5 is free to rotate relative to the female fixture 7 restrictedonly by the grooves 35-35 and the detent 28.

1. A carrying assembly for hand held articles, including a male fixtureand a female fixture, one of which fixtures is adopted for attachment tothe article and the other of which is adapted for attachment to aconvenient carrying site in which: the female plate includes: afaceplate mounted on the support plate, the faceplate having a centrallylocated, upwardly disposed U-shaped slot, a tongue made of a resilientmaterial positioned intermediate the support plate and the faceplatewith the lower end of the tongue mounted on the support plate and theupper free end of the tongue biased by its resiliency away from thesupport plate and toward the faceplate, and a latch mounted on thetongue facing the faceplate; and the male fixture includes: a baseplate,a stem mounted on and extending away from the baseplate and a buttonmounted at the distal end of the stem, the stem being to dimensioned tofit within the slot of the female fixture the button being todimensioned to be of greater width than the lower portion of the slot,whereby the stud of the male fixture can be inserted into the slot ofthe female member and moved toward the bottom of the slot until thelatch engages the rim of the button to secure the male fixture withinthe female fixture.
 2. A carrying assembly according to claim 1 in whichan upwardly extending finger hold forums an integral part of the tongueto facilitate moving the tongue away from the faceplate to release thebutton and allow the stud to be removed from the slot.
 3. A carryingassembly according to claim 1, in which the tongue has a detent locatedsubjacent the latch adapted to seat within grooves that are provided inthe exposed surface of the button.